While the process of Sandblasting Glass is in essence not complicated, there is a whole lot more that goes into it than most people realize.

One of the most often heard comments is how expensive it is to sandblast glass and WE UNDERSTAND THIS better than most. We deal with those costs and the act of balancing the cost with the requirements of producing a high quality product every single day and for each job.

If you have a compressor available you can probably sandblast metal items without too much more investment in equipment. The essence of sandblasting is that you fire a hard medium (called sand but not the kind you find on the beach and often not sand at all) at high velocity at an object to remove a layer of something from that object. Rust, paint, dirt, etc. You don’t even need to worry about scratching the item and depending on what you are using you may not even need a dust containment room? Some medium is even bio-degragable and suitable for external use.

Sandblasting glass is essentially the same however there are other considerations to bear in mind:

1. In order to achieve the sandblasted, satin look of what we know as sandblasted glass, you cannot use standard sandblasting slag or sand. The sand we use is approximately 12x the cost of the basic slag or sand used for sandblasting other materials.
2. Your medium cannot be contaminated with any other metals, plastics or particles that will mark the glass. It will be seen especially if you embed old steel that will then rust in the glass!
3. Glass scratches really easily and the medium you are using is designed to do just that. You have to handle the glass with extreme care.
4. Every tool you use, table or glass stand and even each cloth has to be free of anything that can scratch the glass and has to be kept free of anything that can scratch the glass throughout the process.
5. Uneven blasting will leave either un-etched patches or some areas that are deeper than others. Unless this is intentional for an artistic piece, it becomes immediately noticeable and detracts from the quality of the finished look.

Now lets look at adding a pattern or design to the glass and you have a huge amount more to consider:

1. Software, equipment, materials and labor all go up exponentially when you start adding designs.
2. Creating and tailoring the pattern to the specific job takes additional time and potentially costly software to convert the image into one that is suitable for the process.
3. Cutting the mask (either by hand or with a machine) and applying it to the glass involves more equipment as well as time for the careful cleaning of the glass, application of the mask and then weeding of the design as required.
4.  Once ready to go, sandblasting a design like this takes extra care and experience to ensure that you do not blast off the mask while you do etch the design correctly and to the correct depth in the glass. Some designs may require weeding and blasting in multiple stages to achieve a 3D type look. This requires even more time. 
5. Once the sandblasting is finally done, the rest of the mask must be removed and any residual dust and glue carefully removed in order to not scratch the glass where it should be clear.